I’m currently self employed have been for 7 years I’ve got my own lovely salon in the last 3 years gone from renting a room to a 3 room salon.
I’m struggling with ongoing health issues. I have to have surgery at least twice a year. I had 4 months off poorly last year. It’s not planned poorly days unless it’s surgery days so I change and cancel apps. Lots of clients know ongoing issues briefly but I do get negative comments etc which really gets to me.
It’s also preventing me from growing as big as I want to be so not sure weather to stop altogether as just go round in circles.
Is anyone else dealing with similar situation?
I’ve got a hip problem and while most of the time it doesn’t affect my work, I do schedule big gaps between appointments. If I sit in the same position too long it gets stuck and sometimes doesn’t come out for days. One lady was really rude and was telling me she wanted a different appointment to the one she had booked and why this and why that all about my tan timings. It’s a 45min appt. Form, undress, tan, redress, aftercare, payment and rebooking. I have to include rest time at the end so nobody can book too close to it. She moaned it was 45mins long as it only takes 2mins. She was here for an entire hour whinging. It would have taken 10mins if she could read a health form and undress at a normal speed without the third degree but I always have to expect they will take ages or I can be left stuck. I didn’t give a crap and sod her if she doesn’t come back.
Everyone else, nobody has ever mentioned it really and my regulars were really supportive when I was off for 3 months. A client shared whooping cough with me! I was completely ruined and am still recovering, I catch anything that’s within 10 feet of me, my immune system is shot and people don’t care when I explain they need to cancel if they are sick. I wear masks and gloves and they question why I’m wearing them and act like I have a problem with them as if they are diseased. Which I do because they are!! I have no problem saying so. One fella sneezed on my door and it was so gross it stained the paintwork, I told him off! Bloody disgusting.
I worked like a couple hours a week while recuperating and they were more worried that I was ok than that I couldn’t fit them in their usual times. One was really understanding when the cough first hit. I thought I was having an asthma attack during her facial and excused myself for 20mins and put a mask on so I didn’t splutter on her. I really ruined her treatment and don’t know how I finished it. That was the last day I was able to get out of bed for 3 months apart from those odd couple hours where I’d use all my energy I had to work and then get back to bed. Should clarify I wasn’t contagious after 5 days of medication, but the medical alert the doctor put out about my disease status was very cringey.
So, don’t give a crap about any negative comments about your health and the way you do things unless they are constructive. Your health trumps any client.